Beautiful wooden flooring has long been the top choice of many homeowners, and this isn’t a surprise because wooden floors give a wonderful and elegant look to any home. But if you have wooden floors, they can easily become dirty, and they can sometimes have even more serious issues as well, especially when it comes to mold and grime buildup. It’s important to keep your wooden floors as clean and dirt-free as possible, but if you are having trouble keeping your wooden floors clean, here are the top three ways you can maintain and keep the beautiful look of your wooden flooring.

Simple: take off your shoes

The first – and simplest – remedy is to take off your shoes. Walking on your wooden flooring with dirty shoes can leave particles of dirt, sand, and dust, and these particles are abrasive and can easily leave marks and scratches. If you simply cannot take off your shoes or have guests coming over, another solution would be to place mats at the outside entrances of your home so there will be less dirt tracked in. This is especially true in rainy or snowy weather – you should have an area where boots can first be removed before someone walks in.

The proper way to clean

You should keep your wooden flooring as clean as possible, and this can only come about through regular cleaning. But before you clean, remember this: get rid of grime and dirt first by running a dust mop over the floor or vacuuming the floor. Before you wash the floor, dust it with a duster made of microfibers or a dust mop. If you don’t do this first, the dirt, grime, and dust which has accumulated on the surface may just be rubbed in when you wash the floor.

For deeper cleaning, you can use a homemade solution: a cup of white vinegar combined with a gallon of water. Dip a mop in this solution and wring the mop until it is just damp but not dripping. Then simply mop your wooden floor following the grain of the wood, so that even if the water dries and there are streaks, they will not be too noticeable. After you mop, wipe the floor dry with a soft cloth, or just let it dry naturally.

More effective cleaning

You may not know it, but your wooden flooring can have a deep accumulation of dust, grime, and grease after some time. The best way to deal with this buildup is to have your wooden floor cleaned by a professional company, such as www.nycsteamcleaning.com, which specializes in truly effective – and safe – steam cleaning which can really make your wooden floors shine.